Rotating Genesys Cloud OAuth client secrets without dropping active WebSocket connections

We’re trying to rotate our OAuth client secret for a custom agent desktop extension, but we keep hitting a wall with active sessions. The goal is zero downtime. Currently, we’re using the Genesys Cloud Platform SDK (Node.js) to handle the authentication flow. Here’s the basic setup we have for getting the initial token:

const authClient = new PureCloudPlatformClientV2.AuthApi();
const authOptions = {
 grant_type: 'client_credentials',
 scope: 'oauth_view conversation:read'
};

async function refreshToken() {
 try {
 const response = await authClient.postOAuthToken(authOptions);
 return response.access_token;
 } catch (error) {
 console.error('Auth failed:', error.message);
 }
}

The problem arises when we update the secret in the Genesys Cloud admin console. Any existing WebSocket connections that were established with the old token immediately start failing with 401 Unauthorized on subsequent subscription updates. We’ve tried implementing a dual-token strategy where we generate a new token with the new secret before swapping it out, but the SDK’s AuthApi doesn’t seem to have a built-in way to manage two concurrent credential sets gracefully without invalidating the first one prematurely.

We’ve also looked at the /api/v2/oauth/tokens endpoint to revoke the old token manually, but that feels like a sledgehammer. It kills all sessions associated with that token, which defeats the purpose of a smooth rotation. Is there a specific sequence or API call we’re missing? We need the old token to remain valid for existing WebSocket connections while the new one takes over for new connections. The documentation is pretty vague on the exact lifecycle of tokens during a secret rotation. Any code examples or specific header manipulations that help here would be appreciated. We’re stuck on the transition logic.

Rotating the secret isn’t the issue. The handshake is. You’re likely refreshing the token after the WebSocket connects, which is too late. The SDK’s AuthApi handles the initial grant, but the WebSocket client needs the token injected before the upgrade request hits wss://api.genesyscloud.com.

If you rotate the secret in the portal, any existing tokens are technically valid until expiry (usually 1 hour), but new connections will fail if your code tries to re-auth with the old secret during a refresh. You need to decouple the auth flow from the connection lifecycle.

Try this pattern in your Node extension:

// Refresh token BEFORE initializing the WebSocket client
const newToken = await authClient.postOAuthTokenClientCredentials({
 body: { grant_type: 'client_credentials', scope: 'oauth_view conversation:read' }
});

const wsClient = new PureCloudPlatformClientV2.WebSocketClient();
wsClient.setAccessToken(newToken.access_token);
await wsClient.connect();

The key is ensuring the setAccessToken call happens with the new token before connect() fires. If you’re seeing drops, check your retry logic. Genesys Cloud allows a brief window for token rollover, but if the client holds onto a stale token for the upgrade request, the server rejects it immediately. No graceful degradation there. Just hard disconnects.